MMA coming to Ontario in 2011!!

This past saturday August 14th, the Ontario government will finally be allowing mixed martial arts to come to Ontario in the year 2011. It has been a long time coming, especially after Dalton McGuinty was against allowing it cause he said it wasn’t an important need to Ontario families. He insisted that there were more important stuff that needed to dealt with and UFC wasn’t on his mind at all.

I guess all that persuading by the UFC finally payed off. UFC did it in class as they even opened up an office here in Toronto in May and had former CFL commissioner Tom Wright in charge leading the way.

Main thing was the government finally realized the amount of money a UFC event can generate and help the city. Montreal shows and Vancouver both posted record sellouts. Ontario government is in defecit right now of about $20 billion dollars. This is a great idea cause it will can generate about $6 million for the city. Imagine it in Toronto we will be having even more tourists coming into the city bringing in money,hotels,restaurants,clubs,mma facilities all those places and more will be generating even more money when a UFC event happens.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak has said that he allways has supported allowing the UFC to come here to Ontario. He also took some shots at Dalton McGuinty saying “Perhaps the UFC will declare Dalton McGuinty the heavy-weight champion of flip flopping.”

There were also some statistics gathered and showed Toronto was UFC’s top market in paper view buys and viewers. Imagine the hoopla that it could create once an event is scheduled here in Toronto.

Now the UFC is looking into what venue to host in the Air Canada Centre or the Rogers Centre, but most probably it will happen in the Rogers Centre cause it can sit 50,000 plus and generate more money for the UFC to host it in there. UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre of Montreal is suppose to fight Josh Koscheck this December, but the UFC might consider moving that match to next year to host in Toronto but lets see.

The UFC will also looking at holding shows in other Ontario cities such as Hamilton, Ottawa and Windsor.

Overall this is great news that happened of the weekend, I am really happy the government finally made the right choice and are allowing mixed martial arts in Ontario. I cant wait till it comes to Toronto, I am definitely getting my ticket and gonna be there cheering on.